MAYA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF BELIZE
This Late Classic ceremonial center is noted for its unusual style of construction distinctive of southern Belize. The large pyramids and residences are made of dresses stone blocks with no mortar binding them together. The buildings on top of the pyramids were made from perishable materials rather than masonry and hence do not remain. The name is Maya for "place of Fallen Rocks".
Lubaantun is located north of the Colombia River, I mile past the village of San Pedro Colombia, and is not accessible by public transportation. There is a 20 minute walk from the road to the ruins. Accomodations are available in Punta Gorda Town 20 miles away and in the village of San Antonio, 5 miles away.
This Late Classic ceremonial center is noted for its unusual style of construction distinctive of southern Belize. The large pyramids and residences are made of dresses stone blocks with no mortar binding them together. The buildings on top of the pyramids were made from perishable materials rather than masonry and hence do not remain. The name is Maya for "place of Fallen Rocks".
Lubaantun is located north of the Colombia River, I mile past the village of San Pedro Colombia, and is not accessible by public transportation. There is a 20 minute walk from the road to the ruins. Accomodations are available in Punta Gorda Town 20 miles away and in the village of San Antonio, 5 miles away.
Southern Complex Connection
The pyramids at Lubaantun are, in the main, man-made stone platforms on top of which stood perishable structures. While these platform-pyramids have stairways and terraces built into them, carving and other types of building decoration found in other areas are lacking; at Lubaantun such decoration would have been on the wooden structures on the pyramids' summits. Moreover, and in marked contrast to Nim Li Punit and Uxbenka, there is a surprising absence of carved stone monuments at Lubaantun.
The site was occupied only for one to two centuries and appears to have been the focal centre in the area during that period. In Norman Hammond's view, "There seems to have been a movement of people into the area after 700 A.D., who established a regional "capital' at Lubaantun which acted as the religious, administrative, political and commercial centre of this region."
The pyramids at Lubaantun are, in the main, man-made stone platforms on top of which stood perishable structures. While these platform-pyramids have stairways and terraces built into them, carving and other types of building decoration found in other areas are lacking; at Lubaantun such decoration would have been on the wooden structures on the pyramids' summits. Moreover, and in marked contrast to Nim Li Punit and Uxbenka, there is a surprising absence of carved stone monuments at Lubaantun.
The site was occupied only for one to two centuries and appears to have been the focal centre in the area during that period. In Norman Hammond's view, "There seems to have been a movement of people into the area after 700 A.D., who established a regional "capital' at Lubaantun which acted as the religious, administrative, political and commercial centre of this region."
The Site
Lubaantun ("Place of Fallen Stones") is a Late Classic ceremonial centre with 11 major structures grouped around five main plazas. Hammond's study showed that, "it consisted of three concentric zones of different functions: an inner zone of religious buildings, then one of ceremonial structures including ball courts and ... finally a zone of residential buildings.
The centre lies on a high ridge 20 miles inland. Rather than levelling off the top of the ridge as they did at Xunantunich, the Maya here undertook the task of systematically shaping and adding fill to the slopes, making them vertical rather than slanted so as to widen and flatten out their summits into platforms.
One of Lubaantun's most astonishing features is that its structures were constructed entirely without the aid of mortar: each stone used at the site was carefully measured and cut to fit exactly with the stones it adjoins. The strength of the structures was thus entirely dependent on this fit rather than on any form of cement.
The tallest structure at the site stands 11 metres (36 ft.) above its plaza with a view of the foothills of the Maya Mountains and the coastal plain from the summit.
Lubaantun ("Place of Fallen Stones") is a Late Classic ceremonial centre with 11 major structures grouped around five main plazas. Hammond's study showed that, "it consisted of three concentric zones of different functions: an inner zone of religious buildings, then one of ceremonial structures including ball courts and ... finally a zone of residential buildings.
The centre lies on a high ridge 20 miles inland. Rather than levelling off the top of the ridge as they did at Xunantunich, the Maya here undertook the task of systematically shaping and adding fill to the slopes, making them vertical rather than slanted so as to widen and flatten out their summits into platforms.
One of Lubaantun's most astonishing features is that its structures were constructed entirely without the aid of mortar: each stone used at the site was carefully measured and cut to fit exactly with the stones it adjoins. The strength of the structures was thus entirely dependent on this fit rather than on any form of cement.
The tallest structure at the site stands 11 metres (36 ft.) above its plaza with a view of the foothills of the Maya Mountains and the coastal plain from the summit.
Archaeological Work
Lubaantun was first reported to the government late last century by the inhabitants of the Toledo settlement near Punta Gorda and in 1903 the Governor of the then colony commissioned Thomas Gann to investigate it. Gann explored and excavated the main structures around plaza IV and concluded that the site's population must have been large; his report was published in England in 1904.
In 1915 R. E. Merwin of Harvard University investigated the site, locating many more structures, recognizing a ball court and drawing the first plan; he also took the first photographs of the site. His excavation of the ball court revealed three carved stone markers, each depicting two men playing the famous Maya ball game. These ball court markers were taken to the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. Merwin died before he could publish his account.
In 1926 the British Museum sent an expedition to Lubaantun under the directorship of T. A. Joyce and in 1927 the expedition was joined by J. Eric S. Thompson, who was to become the leading Maya scholar of his time. Thompson controverted Joyce's conclusion that Lubaantun's architecture was of the "in and out" style, showing that the alternating courses of protruding and recessed stones were due to root action. Thompson excavated several phases of construction in the structures but at the end of the season he was sent to investigate the newly-discovered stelae at Pusilha near the Guatemalan border.
Work was not resumed at Lubaantun until 1970 when Norman Hammond, then a doctoral student at Cambridge, began excavations. Spurred on by the lack of information on this region of the Maya lowlands, Hammond mapped the ceremonial centre and its surroundings, gave its period of occupation as 730 - 890 A.D. and reconstructed the site's history.
Though there is presently no large-scale project planned specifically for Lubaantun, Richard Leventhal of the State University of New York is including the site and its surroundings in his ongoing survey which is designed to elucidate the interrelationships between the sites in the southern complex.
Lubaantun was first reported to the government late last century by the inhabitants of the Toledo settlement near Punta Gorda and in 1903 the Governor of the then colony commissioned Thomas Gann to investigate it. Gann explored and excavated the main structures around plaza IV and concluded that the site's population must have been large; his report was published in England in 1904.
In 1915 R. E. Merwin of Harvard University investigated the site, locating many more structures, recognizing a ball court and drawing the first plan; he also took the first photographs of the site. His excavation of the ball court revealed three carved stone markers, each depicting two men playing the famous Maya ball game. These ball court markers were taken to the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. Merwin died before he could publish his account.
In 1926 the British Museum sent an expedition to Lubaantun under the directorship of T. A. Joyce and in 1927 the expedition was joined by J. Eric S. Thompson, who was to become the leading Maya scholar of his time. Thompson controverted Joyce's conclusion that Lubaantun's architecture was of the "in and out" style, showing that the alternating courses of protruding and recessed stones were due to root action. Thompson excavated several phases of construction in the structures but at the end of the season he was sent to investigate the newly-discovered stelae at Pusilha near the Guatemalan border.
Work was not resumed at Lubaantun until 1970 when Norman Hammond, then a doctoral student at Cambridge, began excavations. Spurred on by the lack of information on this region of the Maya lowlands, Hammond mapped the ceremonial centre and its surroundings, gave its period of occupation as 730 - 890 A.D. and reconstructed the site's history.
Though there is presently no large-scale project planned specifically for Lubaantun, Richard Leventhal of the State University of New York is including the site and its surroundings in his ongoing survey which is designed to elucidate the interrelationships between the sites in the southern complex.
Locale and Access
Lubaantun lies on a ridge above a valley cut by a tributary of the Columbia River, which is a quarter of a mile from the site. Streams flow around the base of the ridge and below the site is an expanse of tropical forest. On the banks of the Columbia is situated the traditional Maya village of San Pedro Columbia, one of the larger Maya communities in Toledo District.
Lubaantun can be reached either by the public route, a 1.5 mile uphill trail from the village, or by crossing the Columbia in a canoe and making a shorter but steeper climb across private, cultivated land.
Lubaantun is not accessible by public transport. The site has restrooms and a picnic area, but no drinking water. Accommodation is available in Punta Gorda town, 20 miles away or in San Antonio village, five miles from the site.
Lubaantun lies on a ridge above a valley cut by a tributary of the Columbia River, which is a quarter of a mile from the site. Streams flow around the base of the ridge and below the site is an expanse of tropical forest. On the banks of the Columbia is situated the traditional Maya village of San Pedro Columbia, one of the larger Maya communities in Toledo District.
Lubaantun can be reached either by the public route, a 1.5 mile uphill trail from the village, or by crossing the Columbia in a canoe and making a shorter but steeper climb across private, cultivated land.
Lubaantun is not accessible by public transport. The site has restrooms and a picnic area, but no drinking water. Accommodation is available in Punta Gorda town, 20 miles away or in San Antonio village, five miles from the site.
The Living Lubaantun
The archaeologist's job is essentially to reconstruct the past on the basis of the raw data he or she obtains through excavation. Norman Hammond's analysis of the Lubaantun data is an excellent example of how such reconstruction can bring to life the societies of the past.
Hammond first estimated the extent of the region controlled by Lubaantun -an area bounded by the Maya Mountains in the northwest and the Caribbean coast on the southeast and along the other axis by the edges of the basin of the Rio Grande.
The produce of the various environmental zones within this region of control was brought to the regional market at Lubaantun and thence redistributed:
"From the mountains came volcanic stone for axes and corn-mullers, game and skins; in the foothills dwelt the bulk of the population, growing corn and beans and hunting deer, peccary, gibnut and wild birds; in the coastal plain game could be hunted, wildfowl and medicinal grasses found in the swampy areas, and a variety of plant products including food delicacies and copal incense gathered from the trees. The Rio Grande led across the coastal plain to the Caribbean, where a secondary centre of population existed on the coast and cayes, hunting sea creatures, fishing and gathering shellfish. These were shipped up river to Lubaantun and the foothill settlements in exchange for maize: forty per cent of the animal bones and many of the shells found at Lubaantun in 1970 were of marine origin, and corn-mullers have been found on the coastal sites. Some of the fishbones were of deep-water species, indicating that the coastal dwellers sailed out beyond the cays in search of such species as frigate mackeral and shark."
But while these combined forms of production made Lubaantun largely self-sufficient within its region of control, several items had to be imported from highland Guatemala: jade (found only in Guatemala's volcanic highlands), obsidian (black volcanic glass used for knife- blades), and lava cornmullers. Clearly, Lubaantun had to be producing something to exchange for these items; Hammond concludes that this was cacao beans, the universal currency of pre-Conquest Mesoamerica. The area around Lubaantun is a zone of prime cacao soil, and has the high rainfall and humidity required for the crop's production; moreover, Eric Thompson had noted in 1930 that it was still being bought by traders from Coban in highland Guatemala and sixteenth and seventeenth century sources show that such a trade to the highlands had existed not long after the Conquest. The clinching piece of evidence was unearthed in the 1970 excavation at Lubaantun -a figurine of a musician wearing a cacao- pod pendant, showing that cacao was known at the site in the eighth century; another figurine demonstrated contact between Coban and Lubaantun.
Hammond's elegant reconstruction, based on excavation, ecological analysis and knowledge of related sites brings Lubaantun to life -another step towards understanding the heritage of Belize and Mesoamerica as a whole.
The archaeologist's job is essentially to reconstruct the past on the basis of the raw data he or she obtains through excavation. Norman Hammond's analysis of the Lubaantun data is an excellent example of how such reconstruction can bring to life the societies of the past.
Hammond first estimated the extent of the region controlled by Lubaantun -an area bounded by the Maya Mountains in the northwest and the Caribbean coast on the southeast and along the other axis by the edges of the basin of the Rio Grande.
The produce of the various environmental zones within this region of control was brought to the regional market at Lubaantun and thence redistributed:
"From the mountains came volcanic stone for axes and corn-mullers, game and skins; in the foothills dwelt the bulk of the population, growing corn and beans and hunting deer, peccary, gibnut and wild birds; in the coastal plain game could be hunted, wildfowl and medicinal grasses found in the swampy areas, and a variety of plant products including food delicacies and copal incense gathered from the trees. The Rio Grande led across the coastal plain to the Caribbean, where a secondary centre of population existed on the coast and cayes, hunting sea creatures, fishing and gathering shellfish. These were shipped up river to Lubaantun and the foothill settlements in exchange for maize: forty per cent of the animal bones and many of the shells found at Lubaantun in 1970 were of marine origin, and corn-mullers have been found on the coastal sites. Some of the fishbones were of deep-water species, indicating that the coastal dwellers sailed out beyond the cays in search of such species as frigate mackeral and shark."
But while these combined forms of production made Lubaantun largely self-sufficient within its region of control, several items had to be imported from highland Guatemala: jade (found only in Guatemala's volcanic highlands), obsidian (black volcanic glass used for knife- blades), and lava cornmullers. Clearly, Lubaantun had to be producing something to exchange for these items; Hammond concludes that this was cacao beans, the universal currency of pre-Conquest Mesoamerica. The area around Lubaantun is a zone of prime cacao soil, and has the high rainfall and humidity required for the crop's production; moreover, Eric Thompson had noted in 1930 that it was still being bought by traders from Coban in highland Guatemala and sixteenth and seventeenth century sources show that such a trade to the highlands had existed not long after the Conquest. The clinching piece of evidence was unearthed in the 1970 excavation at Lubaantun -a figurine of a musician wearing a cacao- pod pendant, showing that cacao was known at the site in the eighth century; another figurine demonstrated contact between Coban and Lubaantun.
Hammond's elegant reconstruction, based on excavation, ecological analysis and knowledge of related sites brings Lubaantun to life -another step towards understanding the heritage of Belize and Mesoamerica as a whole.
Toledo Complex:
Three sites in the Toledo District are included together under this heading, the reasons being:
1. the proximity of the sites to each other2. their relationship with each other in historic times 3. their complementary nature 4. stylistic similarities5. in practical terms, the sites are now open to the public and are receiving increasing attention
The different sites in this complex fully demonstrate the variation in organization of the ancient Maya in southern Belize. Hence for example, while Lubaantun has impressive architecture but not stone monuments, Nim Li Punit has numerous sculpted stone monuments but lacks large, impressive structures. The following descriptions of the sites include some discussion as to why these variations occur.
Three sites in the Toledo District are included together under this heading, the reasons being:
1. the proximity of the sites to each other2. their relationship with each other in historic times 3. their complementary nature 4. stylistic similarities5. in practical terms, the sites are now open to the public and are receiving increasing attention
The different sites in this complex fully demonstrate the variation in organization of the ancient Maya in southern Belize. Hence for example, while Lubaantun has impressive architecture but not stone monuments, Nim Li Punit has numerous sculpted stone monuments but lacks large, impressive structures. The following descriptions of the sites include some discussion as to why these variations occur.
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